The Dragonling
by Catnip-Packet
Summary: A baby Zippleback turns up on Hiccup's doorstep one morning with no mother in sight. Will he be able to take care of a baby dragon or will he have to abandon it?
1. The Dragonling

**I FINALLY saw How to Train Your Dragon today after a whole week of dying from lack of dragon intake. I am a die-hard dragon lover all the way!!! This isn't my first fanfic about it, but this is the first I'm posting. More may come later. Please review to motivate me to finish, because I have a bad habit of never finishing anything. Thank you!!**

**Okay, you can read now.**

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**Chapter One: The Dragonling**

Hiccup awoke to a weird pounding on his door. The scraping, snuffling noise had cut into his dreams and raised him from his comfortable sleep. It sounded like Toothless was locked out of the house again. Hiccup was still half asleep, so the thought that Toothless had fallen asleep on the floor beside him last night had not yet reached his mind. He rolled over in bed and caught sight of his dragon sleeping peacefully on the floor. He woke up a little bit more.

If it wasn't Toothless, who was making the noise?

Could it be Astrid, asking him to go for a fly?

Maybe it was Snotlout or Tuffnut or another trainee?

Or perhaps someone wanted to speak to his father?

Whatever it was, it sounded like an animal. That was weird.

Or _was_ it a dragon?

Hiccup sighed and slowly moved his body up into a sitting position. He stuck his head out the window and was instantly wide awake.

There was a dragon on the doorstep.

There _was_ a dragon on the doorstep.

It was very small, and it was sleeping. It was light green and teal speckled in colour, and from his position at the window, it looked like it had two heads. Hiccup scanned the area frantically, but only saw a couple of sleeping Monsterous Nightmares. There were no dragons in sight that looked like the baby, nor any that were searching for something. There was a yawning noise from below, and Hiccup looked down to see the dragonling wake up and start clawing at the door.

"Uh-oh," muttered Hiccup.

One of the dragon's heads burped, and a spark flicked out of its mouth and onto the wooden door of Hiccup's house. Hiccup panicked for a brief moment as the spark didn't go out right away, and then visibly relaxed with relief when it fizzled out. He leapt from the window and hurriedly got dressed. He took the stairs two at a time (a remarkable feat, considering his artificial leg), landed heavily on the ground, and sprinted to the door. When he opened it up, the dragon strolled in leisurely as if he owned the place and made itself home in the middle of the fruit bowl in the middle of the supper table, gnawing on a large bone Toothless had left on the table.

In less than a minute, Toothless had come down to see what the noises were about, and was watching the dragon with Hiccup in rapt fascination, only acknowledging the fact that the dragon had _his_ bone once. Hiccup already knew what it was. It was a Zippleback, one of the most dangerous dragons in Berk. Of course all dragons were dangerous, but still…

"It has to be a baby," Hiccup said. "It's _way_ too small to be an adult." Zipplebacks were probably the biggest dragons in existence. Toothless narrowed his eyes.

"And why the heck did it come _here_, of all places? Why not to somebody else's door?" Hiccup said in frustration. "I don't have time to take care of a baby dragon. My own is bad enough—" Toothless growled.

"Didn't mean it," Hiccup said hurriedly. Toothless resumed watching the baby Zippleback.

"Uh…hey, buddy, do you think you can watch over the little guy for a while?" Hiccup asked cautiously, standing up and gesturing towards the door. "I'm gonna go get Astrid." Toothless looked like he would rather be burned by his own flames than watch over the dragonling, but he gave a small growl that Hiccup took to mean okay. Hiccup was out the door in a flash.

Astrid answered her door just as Hiccup raised his fist to knock. "Saw you from the window," she said in her matter-of-fact voice, smiling at him from underneath the stray strands of hair that always managed to escape her headband. She frowned when she saw his face. "Is something wrong?"

* * *

The Zippleback snorted and tried to daintily step out of the fruit bowl. It ended up knocking the whole thing over. Fruits spilled out all over the table and onto the floor. Toothless quickly dove under the falling fruit and managed to catch most of them. As he carefully placed them back into the basket one by one, the Zippleback wandered off up the stairs.

Toothless placed the last bruised apple on the top of the fruit pile and gave a small smile of satisfaction. Then he looked to the side slightly, expecting to see the dragonling watching him. But it was gone. Only the bone remained on the wooden surface.

Toothless's cat-like eyes widened in surprise. He looked frantically from left to right, trying to catch sight of the baby dragon. He whirled around just in time to see a tiny green tail tip disappear up the stairs. Toothless quickly climbed the stairs, keeping his eyes fixed firmly at the top of the steps. When he reached the top, the first place he looked was in Hiccup's room. There was no dragonling in sight.

Toothless nosed around in the closet, through the heap of stuff Hiccup was always forgetting to clean up, and under the bed, too. He ran out of the room to see the dragonling rummaging around in Stoik's dresser drawer. Stoik was still asleep in the room. Toothless's eyes widened in panic. What if the Zippleback woke him?

Toothless crept quietly into the bedroom, careful not to step on any floorboards that creaked. The Zippleback was nosing through a pair of enormous underpants that would probably work as boat sails if they were stretched enough. The moment it saw Toothless, it buried under the piles of clothing in the drawer. Toothless awkwardly stuck his claw in the drawer and pulled out all the clothes at once. The Zippleback cowered at the bottom. Toothless stuck his other claw in, scooped the dragon out, and deposited it on the floor. He quickly tried to cram all the clothes back into the drawer as Stoik slept on. Just as Toothless had managed to close the drawer, Stoik let out a loud snort. Toothless, startled, almost knocked over the dresser. The Zippleback, which was amazingly still on the floor, screeched in fright as the dresser almost crushed it, and was out of the room in a flash. Toothless grimaced and quickly took after it.

Stoik blearily opened his eyes and stared at the rumpled carpet. "Guuhh," he groaned, blinking tiredly. "What woke me up?" He turned over, looked out the window, and promptly went to sleep again.

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"Let me get this straight," Astrid said as they both headed up the hill to Hiccup's house. "A baby dragon turned up on your doorstep this morning, completely alone, and now you feel obligated to take care of it."

"In a nutshell," said Hiccup. He extended his hand to grab the doorknob.

Inside the house, Toothless heard Hiccup moving around, and quickly looked around for the Zippleback. It was sniffing the base of the wall. Toothless regarded it warily as the door creaked open. Astrid was the first to step in. She looked around, and then froze in place.

"Whoa," Astrid breathed in awe as she feasted her eyes on the dragonling, who was now climbing the wall, Toothless noticed with disdain. "It's so cute!" She approached it cautiously. "Be careful," Hiccup said, nervously running a hand through his hair. "It may get scared."

"It's not going to get scared," Astrid cooed at the dragonling, reaching out a finger and running it down the dragonling's back. It looked at her with both heads and regarded her warily. Then they both opened their mouths.

Hiccup realized what was about to happen a split second before it happened. "Astrid! Get down!" he cried, grabbing her by the shoulders and forcing her down. Seconds later, a fairly large plume of fire whooshed above their heads, just barely missing Astrid's fine blonde locks. The dragon with the head that ignited the other's attack hiccupped, and a spark popped out of its mouth and landed in the floor. It fizzled out as soon as it hit.

Astrid and Hiccup both got up and stared at the dragon in shock. "That was rude," they both said at the same time.

Astrid turned to Hiccup. "And you feel you've got to take care of it. Come on," she said, rolling her eyes and gesturing wildly with her hands. "That thing is DANGEROUS!"

"I thought you said that is wasn't going to get scared," said Hiccup, a trace of amusement in his voice.

Astrid's cheeks ever so slightly turned faintly pink. "It's a baby. It's going to end up killing you! I say we take it up to the hatching grounds and leave it there!"

Hiccup backed up, shocked. "But…I can't do that," he said like the idea was incredulous. "It was brought to my doorstep for a reason. I can feel it. And I'm going to take care of it, or my name isn't—"

The dragon's head hiccupped again, and this time two sparks fell from its mouth.

* * *

"Alright, the first thing we've got to do is make a list," said Astrid, grabbing a piece of parchment and a pencil from the table. She carefully wrote at the top of the parchment:

_How to Train Our Dragon_

"We'll need to get him to stop breathing fire on people," said Hiccup. "And where to go to the bathroom, and how to use the door."

Astrid wrote:

_Step one: No flames._

_Step two: Potty Training._

_Step three: Use of the door._

Hiccup read over Astrid's shoulder. "Um. Okay, that works. Um, how about…"

Astrid started writing again.

_Step four: Feeding itself._

Hiccup snapped his fingers. "Right! I have completely forgotten about that. Thanks for thinking of that."

Astrid looked pleased, and then stern. "But if this doesn't work," she said, in a voice that was almost threatening, "We're dropping it off at the hatching grounds. Got it?"

Hiccup gulped. "Got it."

Astrid smiled, the pleased look on her face again. "Good. Now let's get started."

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**How was that????**

**If there aren't any hatching grounds in Berk (in the movie it wasn't really mentioned) then I'm making some up. And it's on the same island that the monsterous evil mean dragon was living on. It's FAN FICTION. I'm a fan and this is my fiction. I can do whatever I want!**

**Now about those reviews...?**


	2. The Training Begins with Step Three

**Hello, people. The second chapter is up!!! Tell me what you think about it! I'm going to see the movie again on Sunday, and I am so excited!!!!!!**

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**Chapter Two: The Training Begins with Step Three**

"Step One," read Astrid, facing the baby dragon. "No flames." She looked at Hiccup. "How can we train it to not breathe fire? It's what dragons do."

Hiccup shrugged. "Maybe you should've picked a different thing to start with. Something easier, you know?"

Astrid scanned the list. "Umm…the easiest one I can think of now is step three." She pointed to the list. "We need to teach it to use the door."

Hiccup shrugged again. "That sounds easy enough." He looked over at the Zippleback, which seemed to be sleeping. "Okay, buddy, get up. We need to…uh…train you." He gently nudged the dragonling with the tip of his boot. The dragonling didn't even flinch. Hiccup nudged it a bit harder, and then, not getting any response, tried nudging it with his metal leg. The dragonling rolled over and snorted. "Oh for heaven's sake," Astrid huffed impatiently, and stomped on the floor a few paces from the sleeping dragon.

The dragonling leaped three feet in the air and frantically started flying around in wild, erratic circles, one of its heads emitting a steady stream of choking green gas. The other head wasn't sparking yet, but when it did…

"Astrid!" Hiccup cried, coughing and fanning the fog away. "What was that for?"

"To make it move!" came the reply. The green smoke had completely filled the room and Astrid was nowhere to be seen. "Where's the door?"

A huge shape suddenly flew at Hiccup and knocked him to the ground. Toothless's catlike face appeared in Hiccup's line of vision, watching him with mild curiosity, but mostly panic. "Toothless!" Hiccup gasped, relieved. "Can you show us the way out?"

Toothless lowered himself to the ground so Hiccup could climb on, and Hiccup yelled out into the green smoke, "Astrid! Where are you??"

Astrid appeared in front of them and gasped when Toothless and Hiccup suddenly appeared in front of her. "Oh! Where's the baby?" she asked, not a trace of worry in her voice.

"I have no idea," Hiccup said, helping her onto Toothless. "Let's just get out."

"By the way," Astrid said, as Toothless made his way to the exit. "What are we going to name it?"

"You're thinking about names at a time like this?" Hiccup asked incredulously.

Astrid smiled, ignoring his question. "Because I was thinking about calling it 'Poppy' or 'Lavender'."

Toothless finally found the door and burst out. Hiccup and Astrid both tumbled off and rolled onto the grass. Toothless stepped back inside the house and began to flap his wings as hard as he could without actually lifting off the ground. The green gas began to thin out slightly. Within a few minutes, the house was clear again. Toothless stepped back outside. "Where's Lavender?" Astrid said after a pause.

"Please not Lavender," Hiccup said in a pleading voice.

Astrid laid a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure she's fine."

"I was talking about the name, actually," said Hiccup, cautiously stepping inside the house. 'Lavender' was sitting on the floor, sleeping again. Astrid stepped inside the house and brought her foot down again, although not as hard this time. "Oh for the love of—we're never going to get this thing trained!"

"Um, well, maybe we should wait until it's finally woken up," Hiccup suggested, walking farther into the house. Toothless peered inside and then carefully stepped inside the house. Astrid sighed impatiently and slowly walked over to the dragonling. "Are we going to tell anybody about this?" she asked after a moment. "We can't keep this a secret forever."

Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck and nervously glanced out the door. "Oh! Yeah…"

"Let's name it now," Astrid begged. "Please?"

Hiccup huffed and sat down beside her. "Okay, fine. But _not_ Lavender. And how do you know it's a girl, anyway?"

"I just know," said Astrid wisely. They stared at the dragon and tried to think of names.

"Jane?"

"Eurgh, no way."

"It was just a thought…how about Flash?"

"What the heck—"

"I want it to sound cool! Okay fine, then no Flash."

"Lavender…?"

"Not a chance."

The dragonling stirred and blinked. One of its heads looked toward the door, where Toothless stood guard. The other looked at Astrid and Hiccup, who were still squabbling about names. No one would miss it. The dragonling yawned, got up, and made its way upstairs again. Toothless, noticing the dragonling's departure quickly looked to Hiccup to see if he had noticed anything. Hiccup obviously hadn't. Toothless ran up to his boy and nudged him in the side. "Ow! Hey, Toothless, tell Astrid here that 'Thor' would totally fit better than 'Lavender'."

Toothless, distracted for the moment, opened his mouth and pointed to the empty spaces where his teeth had retracted to help Hiccup out.

"I named _you_ because when I first got close to you, you had no teeth," said Hiccup thoughtfully. "So the first time I got close to the baby, he was—"

"Gone!" Astrid interrupted.

"No he wasn't," said Hiccup, rolling his eyes. "You are so—"

"She's gone!" Astrid said in a panicked voice.

"He's not a she and where did he go?" Hiccup gasped, leaping up and looking frantically around.

"_She_ probably went upstairs," said Astrid, glancing toward the top of the steps.

"Let's follow _him_," said Hiccup, jogging over to the foot of the steps.

"Let's follow _her_," said Astrid, following suite.

"I think we need to work out a compromise," said Hiccup.

"The head with the sparks in a she," said Astrid.

"That's not fair," whined Hiccup. "I wanted the one with the sparks to be—"

Suddenly a big plume of fire appeared at the top of the steps. Astrid screamed. "She set the house on fire!"

"You're right! _She_ created all the mess. It's your head. Your call," said Hiccup, pretending to walk away.

"_Your_ house, _your_ sleeping parent upstairs," reminded Astrid.

Hiccup and Astrid ran up the stairs. "Maybe we should have started with step one," Hiccup suggested.

When they reached the top of the steps, the fire hadn't spread very far. The dragonling was nowhere to be seen. "Oh, great," groaned Astrid. "Now where is she?"

Suddenly, a small green shape rocketed out of the flames and flew straight at them.

Astrid and Hiccup both cried out in surprise and leaped backwards, stumbling backwards down the stairs at the same time. The dragonling zoomed over their heads, spitting sparks with one head and spewing clouds of green gas with the other. "Lavender!" yelled Astrid, trying to grab the dragonling with one hand. "Flash!" yelled Hiccup, not bothering to try, since it was already five feet away.

"We need to catch the dragon and put out the fire," Astrid said, panicking. "The house isn't going to survive."

"I'll go after him," said Hiccup, scrambling to his feet. "You put out the fire."

Astrid quickly got up and made her way toward the well outside. Hiccup took off after the dragonling, which had stopped spraying gas and sparks all over the room, but was now hovering around the ceiling and refusing to come down. Astrid sprinted past Hiccup with a bucket of water. "Any luck?" she called as he passed. Hiccup glared up at the dragonling. "You think?"

Toothless growled as he watched the baby dragon flit around the ceiling. "Toothless!" Hiccup said, noticing for the first time that Toothless was in the room with them. "Can you help us, buddy?" He smiled encouragingly and gestured to the dragonling, now doing loop-de-loops. Toothless rolled his eyes, then crouched, getting ready for a jump, and sprang up at the baby dragon. The dragonling shrieked and dropped like a stone from the ceiling, heading straight for the floor. "Whoa!" Hiccup gasped, diving to catch the dragon as it fell.

Astrid came back down the stairs, wiping sweat from her forehead. "There. The fire's out. We may need to get some new rugs, though." She looked down at Hiccup, lying on his stomach on the floor, his arms outstretched in front of him, the dragonling in his hands, looking at her innocently. "Listen, if you don't start listening to us, you're going back to the island. Okay?" she said to the dragonling sternly.

The dragonling hiccupped again and then curled up and went back to sleep. "Are they supposed to sleep this much?" complained Hiccup. "Get him off me so I can stand up."

Astrid just shook her head. "Hiccup, I'm serious," she said, trying to sound as gentle as she could. "This isn't going very well. I think you're going to have to accept the fact that this is too much for us to handle. We should probably get her back today."

"He's not going anywhere," said Hiccup, trying to stand up. The dragonling rolled off his hands and landed in a heap on the floor.

"You got that right," said Astrid, as the dragon slept like a stone.

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**If anybody has any ideas for a name for the dragonling, could you please tell me? I need Astrid and Hiccup to reach a descision. I'm tired of calling it 'the dragonling' all the time. I can't keep up with 'Lavender' and 'Flash' . Thanks!! **


	3. Lakeside Lesson

**Hello everyone! Thank you to everyone who gave me name suggestions! It was sooo haarrrdddd to chose because I liked them all! But the winner is Storm Uchiha for her suggestion 'Dopple'. (For 'doppelganger' because it has two heads!) Thanks a bunch again to everybody, and now I will stop talking! **

**Enjoy!**

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**Chapter Three: Lakeside Lesson**

Half an hour later, the dragonling had finally woken up. Toothless flew them all down to the lake, and thus began the fourth step. Feeding.

"Toothless, I think you're going to have to help us out a bit on this one," said Hiccup, walking down to the edge of the lake. "You're the only one, really, who can teach Flash this."

"Her name is NOT Flash," Astrid said, nudging Hiccup in the ribs as the two dragons walked up to the lake. "It's Lavender."

"Toothless," Hiccup said loudly. "What's this dragon's name?"

Toothless turned around, gestured to the dragonling's two heads, and rolled his eyes.

"Two-face?" Hiccup suggested. Astrid made two thumbs down.

"DD, short for Double Dragon?" Hiccup proposed. Astrid stuck out her tongue.

"This is harder than I thought it would be," Hiccup muttered.

"Dopple," said Astrid suddenly. Hiccup looked up. "Huh?"

"Short for 'doppelganger'," said Astrid. "Because its got two heads. It totally fits."

Hiccup smiled. "Well, it's better than Lavender. And I was going to suggest that anyway."

"Oh yeah right!" Astrid scoffed.

And so Dopple finally had a name.

Toothless stuck his head under the water and came up a second later with a fish in his mouth. He showed it to Dopple, swallowed it whole, and gestured to the lake, urging Dopple to try. Dopple cocked his heads and stared at the bigger dragon. Toothless patted the water with one claw. Dopple looked at the water, then back at Toothless. He let out a whiny dragon noise. Toothless frowned at Dopple and smacked the water with his tail.

Dopple stuck his two heads under the water, rooted around, and came up with a long black and yellow striped eel clutched in his jaws; the head of the eel in one mouth, the tail in the other. Toothless took one look and recoiled in fright, staring at the eel in horror as Dopple snapped up the eel without a second thought. Toothless glanced back to Hiccup with an infuriated look on his face as if to say, "He's crazy. Absolutely crazy. We need to take him back. Now."

"Great job!" Hiccup cheered the two dragons on. "Thanks for helping him, Toothless!" He scratched the Night Fury behind the ears. Toothless, despite his annoyance over Dopple, half closed his eyes and started to purr. Dopple was still snapping up eels, the two heads taking turns. Six more eels later, Dopple backed away from the lake and waddled away to explore the area. Astrid smiled after him.

"I think we're going pretty well," Hiccup said, sounding like a proud parent. "I mean, we've got him to feed himself, and we've finally got a name."

"But he's still not potty trained, and we haven't taught him to use the door and not flame the house," reminded Astrid. "Speaking of which, we haven't replaced the carpets yet, either."

"You worry too much," said Hiccup. "This is gonna turn out perfectly fine. You up for a flight?" he asked, deftly changing the subject.

Astrid shrugged. "Might as well. And if Dopple disappears while we're out, then that'll be a bonus!"

Hiccup rolled his eyes but nervously glanced back at Dopple before mounting Toothless. Toothless took off into the sky with Astrid and Hiccup on his back. Dopple looked up from the rock he was sniffing and gazed after them. Then, spreading his tiny wings, he took off into the sky after them.

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**Epic ending, right? Cliffhanger, right? You want to keep reading, right? Hopefully. Please review if you like it!! **

**And if you don't like it, review anyway, I love you all!!!!!!!**


	4. Disaster Strikes

**Hey, guys! Sorry for the really long break, but my computer broke down and it took a while to get a new one. But I've got the fourth chapter for you now, so your suffering is over!!!! Enjoy!**

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**Chapter Four: Disaster Strikes**

The thing Astrid loved most in the world was flying.

She loved the swooping feeling in her stomach as the dragon took off into the sky, she loved feeling the clouds wash past her face, and she loved feeling free. However, she didn't like it when the person she was flying with wanted to talk of nothing but a certain baby Zippleback.

"…and after I replace the carpets with fire-proof wool, then we can teach him not to flame the place," said Hiccup happily. "And we can build it a small toilet and have Toothless teach him how to use it—"

"Can't we talk about something else?" Astrid begged.

Hiccup feigned surprise. "But I thought you liked Dopple."

Astrid bit her lip. "Well…I do," she admitted. "But face it, Hiccup, we're not going to be able to take care of it. Especially with no one finding out about it. And I know that this is going to kill you, but can we just take him back today?"

Hiccup sighed as Toothless angled slightly downwards. "Astrid, can't you just give him a chance?" he asked softly. "We've only had him for a day."

"We did give him a chance," Astrid told Hiccup. "And he filled the house with green gas, set part of upstairs on fire, and slept through our lessons. One day he's going to do some serious damage that we can't help prevent. I'm sorry, but he has to go. We can definitely find a willing mother Zippleback to take care of him at the island."

"Astrid…"

Astrid blinked. The only time she had seen Hiccup this desperate was when she had wanted to tell the village about the nest and he hadn't. That had been pretty dire. And now this?

"Just one more chance," Hiccup begged. "I promise I'll train him eventually. I'll even build him a shelter here and he can stay here for the time being. But please let him stay. He needs us."

Astrid sighed.

Behind them, Dopple was catching up with Toothless.

"Astrid, he's just a baby," said Hiccup, unaware that the baby was following them and rapidly catching up. "There's no way he can do any serious damage. The biggest crisis we've had with him so far is when he set fire to the carpet upstairs. You had no problems putting it out. "

And just as Dopple pulled up in front of Toothless, Hiccup spoke those jinxed words.

"What's the worst that can happen?"

Dopple swerved in front of Toothless and screeched out a greeting. Toothless, not seeing the dragon until he was about to collide with him, was forced to do a jerky sort of roll/dive do avoid the baby Zippleback.

The good news: Toothless didn't collide with Dopple.

The bad news: He collided with a rock pole instead.

Toothless dropped out of the sky, Hiccup and Astrid falling off his back. The Night Fury hit the water below with a huge smack and began to sink. Hiccup and Astrid splashed down a few feet away from him and floated up to the surface, gasping for air. "What happened?" Astrid choked, spitting water out of her mouth.

"Toothless!" Hiccup gasped, diving underneath the waves to find his dragon friend. Astrid swam toward the rock pole that the dragon had crashed into and clung on to the side, desperately scanning the surface of the water for signs of life. After a few minutes of torture, a few bubbles appeared. Soon after came Toothless's head, and then Hiccup's. Toothless was letting out small, desperate whines of pain.

"Astrid," Hiccup said frantically. "I think his front leg might be broken."

Something in Astrid's mind finally snapped.

"And why," she said in a low voice, "is his leg broken? It's because he had to swerve out of the way of a certain baby dragon to avoid crashing into him. Just like the fire that could've burned the house down, this was that stupid dragon's fault. If Toothless's leg is broken, it's that dragon's entire fault. Hiccup," she yelled, her voice getting louder by the second. "We're taking him back NOW!"

Her last words echoed around the water. _"Now…now…now…now…"_

Toothless looked at Astrid with wide eyes full of pain and fear. Hiccup stared at Astrid first with shock, then with sadness. "Okay," he whispered.

Above them, a small green shape looped through the air and let out a long, mourning cry.

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**Yes, it's a bit sad, but it's part of the plan, okay? Stay tuned for the next chapter! Please review if you like it! And if you don't like it, review anyway! I love you all!**


	5. The Return

**Hello again! New chapter for you all! And a little disclaimer, too:**

**I, Catnip-Packet, solumnly swear that I do not own the name Bluebell. I was very kindly given permission to use it by Enchantable. **

**Thank you!**

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**Chapter Five: The Return**

Upon closer inspection, Toothless's leg proved to be not broken, but badly sprained. He had no trouble flying, but he wasn't able to land. For this reason, Astrid said that he couldn't possibly fly them to the nest.

Hiccup hadn't even suggested they keep Dopple until Toothless was better, so he could fly them all to the nest when his leg was healed. He hardly spoke at all, except to ask Astrid in a low voice which dragon they would be taking for transportation.

"We're taking Bluebell," Astrid said, trying to be calm.

"Are you sure she'd be okay for the job?" Hiccup asked quietly.

"Bluebell is perfect for anything," Astrid said, defending her dragon. "Why, which dragon did you think we'd be taking?"

"Bluebell will be fine," Hiccup said.

When Toothless found out that he wouldn't be going, he tried to show them how well he could fly by taking off and then promptly landing again in a quite clumsy fashion. He looked at Hiccup from his position in the dirt and smiled hopefully.

"Toothless, you need to rest," Astrid soothed, stroking the dragon's muzzle. "We're going to get rid of Dopple now and you'll never have to see him—again—" She lowered her head and pressed her forehead against Toothless's. She was crying, but Hiccup didn't intervene.

Astrid wiped her eyes and stood up. "I'll put the saddle on Bluebell," she said hollowly. "Go get Dopple and get ready."

"I'm taking Toothless," said Hiccup bravely. "I don't mind crash landing, and I know he doesn't either."

Instead of protesting that Bluebell would do fine again, Astrid sniffed and choked out, "Then I don't mind either."

Fifteen minutes later, they were flying toward the nest. Hiccup was sitting on Toothless's back looking unusually grim. Astrid was behind him with Dopple in her lap. She didn't look pleased to be there, but she refused to be left behind.

"There's the nest," Hiccup said after a quarter of an hour. They were nearing the volcano now, and Dopple seemed to be getting sadder and sadder with every wing beat. Toothless got as low as he could and then skidded on his stomach to a halt on the rocks. Hiccup quickly made sure Toothless was unhurt before helping Astrid stand up. Astrid handed him Dopple. "You carry him," she said. Hiccup wordlessly took the dragonling in his arms. "Do we go find another dragon or what?" Hiccup asked. "Toothless needs a break—"

But before he could finish his sentence, there was a flash of green and a Zippleback appeared in front of them.

The Zippleback was quite a large one, even bigger than the ones that Hiccup was used to seeing. Astrid squeaked and instinctively moved closer to Hiccup. Toothless tried to get in front of Hiccup to protect him, but the landing had knocked the movement out of his leg.

Dopple took one look at the Zippleback and immediately began chirping at it.

Hiccup, unsure of what to do, held Dopple out to the Zippleback.

The Zippleback lowered a head, and Dopple jumped into the air and landed in the larger dragon's head, sliding down its neck and onto its back. The Zippleback cooed to the dragonling and then turned to Toothless. Toothless shrunk back and tried to move away, but his leg prevented him from getting far, and he fell onto his back. The Zippleback leaned over him and gently touched its head against Toothless's leg.

Toothless let out a strange noise that was halfway between a gasp and a shriek. "Toothless!" Hiccup cried, rushing over to his friend. The Zippleback pulled its head away and watched as Hiccup inspected Toothless's leg. "But…" Hiccup whispered as he ran his hand over Toothless's leg. Toothless wiggled it and then cautiously put some weight onto it.

"I don't believe it," said Astrid. "Is it…healed?"

Toothless looked up at the Zippleback and then sank into what was an unmistakable bow.

The Zippleback turned both of its heads toward Hiccup and Astrid and looked down at them. Hiccup felt Astrid take his hand in hers. The Zippleback nodded to them in thanks and then turned and began to walk away. From his position on the dragon's back, Dopple turned and locked eyes with Hiccup for one brief moment.

And then they were gone.

* * *

**I know that there are some people out there (like YOU, underwaterwriter) that think that an epic ending to a chapter means that it's also the end of the story. So before I leave to do some more writing on something else, I'd like to tell you that THERE IS ONE MORE CHAPTER LEFT! DO NOT THINK IT IS THE END! BECAUSE IT'S NOT!**

**Thank you again to Enchantable for letting me use Bluebell!**


	6. The End

**All good things must come to an end, so here is the last chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Six: The End**

It was very dark when the three returned to the village without Dopple.

"How did Toothless's leg just heal like that?" Astrid kept whispering throughout the entire ride home. "That's impossible."

"It happened," said Hiccup, equally shocked. "It happened…"

"Do you think that Zippleback was their queen?" Astrid asked. "I mean…the way Toothless bowed to it and everything…"

"Was it, Toothless?" Hiccup asked the Night Fury. Toothless just shook his newly healed leg and refused to say a word.

"I feel so horrible now," Astrid whispered. "I mean, I yelled at Dopple so much and then his mother repaid me by healing Toothless. It's not fair." She started crying again.

"Hey, don't cry," said Hiccup, awkwardly rubbing her shoulder. "I think the dragon understood."

They rode in silence for the rest of the ride. When they finally reached Berk again, the village was pretty much asleep. Astrid, Toothless, and Hiccup walked up the hill toward Hiccup's house and opened the door.

Stoick was seated at the table, staring at them.

They stared back.

"Where have you been all day?" Stoick said curiously. "I didn't see you this morning at all."

Hiccup tried to think fast. "Uh…we went…fishing?"

"For the whole day?" Astrid added.

Stoick wasn't paying attention. "I had the strangest dream last night," he went on. "That Baldur appeared to you as a Zippleback. It made absolutely no sense, but it somehow seemed to mean something."

"A god appeared to us as a Zippleback?" Astrid repeated, like she couldn't believe it.

Stoick shook his head. "It's weird. I hardly ever have dreams. But when I do, they always seem to have some hidden meaning to them. But Baldur appearing to you as a Zippleback?" Stoick let out a short, loud laugh. "That's impossible."

Astrid turned her head at look at Hiccup, thinking of how the Zippleback had seemed to magically mend Toothless's leg.

Hiccup began to smile.

Baldur was the god of Peace.

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**Well, that's it. I hope the ending isn't too corny. I actually didn't have any ending in mind when I started this story, so when I got this idea I just stuck with it. Not to say I don't like it though, because I do. But anyway, I hope you enjoyed it all the same.**

**Happy Reading!**

**~Catnip-Packet**


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